Chandigarh mayor Manoj Sonkar resigns ahead of Supreme Court hearing

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In a new twist, a day before the Supreme Court hearing over the mayoral polls in Chandigarh, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mayor Mayor Manoj Sonkar on Sunday late evening tendered his resignation from the post. The mayoral elections case is listed before the Supreme Court on February 19 and Anil Masih, presiding officer for mayoral elections has been asked to appear in person before the apex court.

Sonkar addressed his resignation to the municipal corporation commissioner, Chandigarh.

The development comes in the backdrop of the Supreme Court taking a stern view of a video in which Anil Masih, the Presiding Officer, is purportedly seen tampering with eight votes during the counting process on January 30.

Notably, the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress, which had a combined strength of 20 in the House, had lost the mayoral post to the BJP, which had strength of 16, after eight votes were declared invalid. Sonkar, 39, who is the ward 7 councillor, got 16 votes, while Kuldeep Dhalor of the AAP-Congress alliance bagged 12 votes, while eight of the total 36 votes were declared invalid. Sonkar, who runs a liquor business, has studied up to Class 7.

According to sources, during the two-day national convention of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), aimed at deliberating on the strategy for the Lok Sabha elections, which began on February 17, the party high command has asked Sonkar to resign from the post.

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